Kia Stinger, Nissan Leaf Win New J.D. Power Engineering Awards

The Kia Stinger sedan (top) and Nissan Leaf (bottom) electric car were the highest-ranked winners of J.D. Power’s new engineering awards.

The inaugural awards combine the results of J.D. Power’s annual initial quality study (IQS) and APEAL (Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) vehicle owner surveys. The Stinger and Leaf were honored as the highest-ranked all-new and redesigned models, respectively.

IQS measures new-vehicle quality by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles reported during the first 90 days of ownership. The APEAL study evaluates owners’ “emotional attachment” and level of excitement across 77 attributes during the same period.

The engineering teams for the two models received their awards at last week’s SAE World Congress Experience in Detroit.